86 Hints on Landscape Gardening 



water is liable to gather, a drain with sufficient 

 inclination must be built underneath, also lateral 

 drains leading into it from both sides of the road 

 protected from above by an iron grating, through 

 which the water may run down freely. Where 

 there are steep banks along the drive or path, 

 stone gutters may be built alongside of them be- 

 tween the drains so as to prevent the earth from 

 being swept away, or if the stone gutters are too 

 expensive the same purpose may be attained by 

 using a mixture of tar and rosin. In the park I 

 sometimes have opened ditches, constructed to 

 save expense on one or both sides of the road, 

 and slanting ridges in the park itself, which 

 serve the same purpose, but do not look so well. 

 Where there is little water to be considered, one 

 need not wall up the subterranean drains, but 

 simply fill them up with large field stones or lay 

 them with the hollow tiles I have spoken of in 

 Chapter VI, in the section on the drainage of 

 meadows. For the drives, stones broken as small 

 as possible (in my park granite stones) are laid 

 six inches thick and stamped with broad wooden 

 stampers in order to make them assume a slightly 

 arched form, and on this spread fine coal ashes, 

 mixed with broken brick, two inches deep ; 

 this is again pounded together with old plaster 

 and building refuse ; then an inch of coarse river 

 gravel. Finally, the whole is heavily rolled with 

 iron or stone rollers. The last part of the work, 

 the covering with the gravel and the rolling, is 

 generally repeated every year, or, at least, every 



